Northern Ireland suffer second-half collapse to lose in Bulgaria

Bulgarian boss Yasen Petrov shuffled his pack at half-time and got the rewards

Ian Baraclough saw his Northern Ireland side beaten by Bulgaria (Liam McBurney/PA).

A bad week for Northern Ireland got worse on Tuesday night as two crisp Todor Nedelev strikes saw Bulgaria come from behind to win 2-1 in Sofia.

Conor Washington’s sixth international goal had given Ian Baraclough’s side a half-time lead as they looked to have responded well to Saturday’s controversial 2-0 defeat in Switzerland which effectively ended World Cup qualifying hopes, but it all went wrong after the break.